Wish
by Jasmine Starlight
Summary: SouYuki Soujirou exasperatedly rested his forehead against Yuki’s, “Akira’s nosiness only comes in handy once every ten years.” He whispered tiredly. Yuki laughed, jumping down from the counter hand entwined with Soujirou’s.


**T****itle: **Wish

**Author:** Jasmine Starlight

**Word Count: **2,356

**Universe: **Hana Yori Dango Live Action

**Disclaimer:** …evil laugh

**Warnings:** Spoilerish 2nd season.

**Pairing (s):** Soujirou x Yuki

**Rating: **M

**Time Started: **09:13 PM 4/30/07

**Time****Completed**: 04:59 PM 5/24/07

**A/N**: Mad love. Akira is so much love. And is totally a matchmaker.

Yuki-chan looked so devastatingly heartbroken, and yet so beautiful. Akira thought as she pressed her fingertips to the glass wall of his solarium. Even in the dead of winter the room was filled to the brim with plants exotic and indigenous.

"Yuki-chan, I—" he started but stopped when she raised a hand.

"It's alright, Mimasaka-kun. I shouldn't have been so foolish." She said wearily, her bright eyes dim, every part of her sagging. She was attired in the trendiest and most expensive clothes that Akira had given her and her hair done up in an elaborate and beautiful hairstyle that he had paid for.

All for Soujirou.

All for naught.

It was then that Akira cursed his sensitive and charitable nature; he was the one who pushed and funded his ill hatched scheme onto Yuki, who only loved his best friend and wanted to be loved in return.

Yuki would have been better off if she hadn't let her desperation allow Akira to try and mold her into Nishikado Soujirou's perfect woman.

"Yuki-chan." He said again but stopped when he saw a tear run down her cheek.

"It wouldn't have worked anyway. Your plan or mine. Nishikado-san has never loved me and tonight has made it clear that he never will."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I was stupid. I should have realized that Tsukushi and Tsukasa were a bad archetype to keep going because of."

"It's not your fault."

"Mimasaka-san," she said turning her tearful gaze to him, "I changed everything about myself for him. And he still didn't want me. Whose fault is it except my own?" she said brokenly.

"It's his. All his. You don't deserve this Yuki-chan." Akira said fiercely, crossing the sunroom in angry strides to where she was standing. Dimly he noted that his grand ball was still in progress.

"If he doesn't love me, then it's not fair to him that I continue to bother him." Yuki said dejectedly, practically wilting into Akira's arms.

"No, don't say that. Yuki-chan, look at me. Do me a favor? Forget him; forget that Nishikado Soujirou ever existed and that he ever deserved your love. You're better than him. I should have known that."

Yuki remained pliant and vulnerable in his arms; he tipped her face up to his and looked her in the eyes. "Please."

Her exhalation was her affirmative and then he hugged her and placed a kiss on her hair.

**RAWR**

Yuki had traded her days off for days working in the shop, Tsukushi needed to spend time with Domyouji to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. And it stopped Yuki's parents from seeing her often enough to notice the broken look in her eyes or how much weight she'd lost.

She gazed blankly at her reflection in the glass counter; she looked up when the view was obscured by a well manicured hand.

Yuki blinked as her eyes traveled up the arm of manicured hand to the well-manicured face. Huh. Hanazawa Rui.

"Tsukushi-chan isn't at work today." Yuki said before turning to grab her broom, ever since her debacle at Akira's home the store, her room, her house, and her locker had never been so clean.

"I'm not here to see Makino." He said evenly, fixing her with a stare, which Yuki supposed would have made a past Makino weak in the knees.

But she met him with her lightless eyes and replied, "Okami-san isn't here either."

"I'm not here to see her either." He said quietly, peeling off his leather gloves.

"I don't suppose you have a problem deciding between strawberry daifuku and anko daifuku?" she said tartly.

"I think you know why I'm here." He said fixing her with yet another stare.

_What next? Is Domyouji going to waltz in and demand that I continue pursuing Soujirou for his well-being? _

"Well, if we're on the same page then I think you should leave." She said coldly, unknotting her apron and hanging it up. It was almost closing time anyway.

"We both know that you need to talk about this." He said gently.

"Talk about what? How your friend made a fool of me? How I let myself be paraded around like some dog on show? How you all had a great laugh at Yuki the common girl who thought she had a chance? No thanks." She said bitterly.

Rui took in her defensive stance and noted how her work uniform fit looser than usual and that her eyes were no longer happy or inviting.

"We wouldn't do that. And you know it." He said in a tone that left no room for argument.

"So what? I don't care what the hell you do. Just leave me alone." She said biting her lip as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Why was she so weak? How could Tsukushi be so strong and her best friend so pathetic?

Silence.

"You don't look well Yuki-chan. Blue isn't a good color on you." He said maintaining his distance, keeping the display counter between them.

Yuki had spent too many hours, damming her tears up and they exploded running down her face in streams. She clenched her hands into fists and willed herself not to sob.

Blearily she noted that Hanazawa Rui was offering her a monogrammed handkerchief. She wiped her tears and looked at Rui through red rimmed eyes.

"What did you want to talk about Hanazawa-kun?"

**RAWR**

Yuki's ill-thought prediction turned out to be true as the leader and only remaining member of F4 paid her a visit the next day.

"Yuki." He said gruffly.

"Domyouji-san."

"How are you holding up?" the question itself was rather mundane but the asker made Yuki burst into manic giggles. Tsukasa's confused face only made her chortle harder.

"So you have cracked." He said divisively.

"How can I help you Domyouji-san?" she said mirthfully, wiping down the counter thoughtfully.

"I think you know. As the great play writer Shookesword said, "True love's course ne'er did run smooth."

Yuki raised her eyebrows; he was quoting the Bard and everything. This was serious.

**RAWR**

Yuki took a day off after her stern visit from the future heir of the Domyouji Zaibatsu in a preemptive action to stem any other visits from any other members of F4 (read: Soujirou)

She took a long bath and read a book that she had been meaning to for a long time and surfed the web and did many things that she'd put off because then she would have to stop and think.

Her mother had asked her to go to the store and pick up some milk and some shrimp chips. Since she had run out of things to do, she decided to venture out into the world.

She had not taken two steps out of her house when she collided with a warm solid chest.

Yuki jumped back and looked at Soujirou in shock.

"Why are you here?" she asked holding her keys tightly in the vise of a weapon.

"I don't know." He said, fiddling with his scarf. Yuki saw that he hadn't slept in awhile and that he had obviously been riding his bike from the state of his hair. And the way he gripped his helmet was almost comparable to the way she had clung to the hope that he would love her.

"I wanted to tell you something." He said, for once unsure of himself, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Yuki took private glee in his discomfort. "Really?"

"Don't say anything, just listen. I know that I don't deserve you and that I've been a stupid ass. But this past week has shown me what a huge part of my life you've become. This week a day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought about you or how you were doing and who you were with. I've come to expect your calls, your presence, your voice."

"So what you're saying is you miss me fawning over you?"

"Let me finish. I mean that I miss you. I came to apologize for my behavior, last week and all the other times you made extra effort for me."

"Apology accepted." Yuki said tersely.

Soujirou said nothing; Yuki stared at him without interest.

"Now what?" he said awkwardly.

"Well that al depends on you. You've apologized but I don't think you seem to realize how much trouble I went through for you."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Well—let's think. First I humiliated myself in front of everyone in the Tokyo social circuit, before that I endured hours of language, culture, music, and etiquette lessons. Then before that I spent useless hours texting, calling, and emailing you. And finally before that I learned how to perform the tea ceremony for you--"

"Hey! I didn't make you do the tea ceremony, remember? You did that on your own."

"Not really, I did it for you which would mean that I didn't do it for myself."

"So what do you want, exactly?"

Yuki smiled for the first time in days, "Equivalent trade." And Soujirou felt like a cornered rabbit.

**RAWR**

"Where's Soujirou?" Rui said as they reclined in their F4 lounge, all members aside from the aforementioned present.

Akira smiled, "He's doing something important."

"Like what? Shopping for tea cups?" Domyouji said derisively.

"Actually, he's been relearning every lesson that Yuki learned for him. All the etiquette, the tea ceremony, everything." Tsukushi said as she climbed the stairs into the lounge. "It was the first time in days that she'd smiled."

"Really?" Rui said, leaning forward from his book interestedly. Sometimes his friends were more entertaining than a tellenovella.

"Yep." Makino said as she took her customary seat next to her boyfriend.

Akira smiled, "It's what he deserves." He said with finality.

"Like the 12 Great Labors of Theseus." Domyouji noted sagely, oblivious to his error, mistaking the silence in the room for ignorance as per usual.

**RAWR**

Soujirou thought his brain would explode. Relearning everything he'd had to learn as child was a Herculean task. How did Yuki do this in months?

He sighed as got off his bike and went into the dango shop. His last task was to meet her there.

Soujirou stepped into the shop and expected Yuki to be there to greet him.

"Nishikado-san? Is that you?" her voice floated out from the back storage room.

"Yes." He replied loudly, drumming his fingers on the countertop.

Yuki appeared soon enough and in her hands was a uniform, the one that she normally wore for work. Smiling she presented it to him with flourish. Soujirou stared at the clothing in her hands blankly.

"Do you want me to do laundry?" he asked slowly and warily, looking at her suspiciously.

She laughed, "No stupid, it's the last thing you have to do."

"What?"

"Work my shift. And then you don't have to do anything else." She said smiling as she picked a loose thread from her shirt.

"Alright then."

**RAWR**

Yuki had failed to mention that his last task included a crash course in all things sweet, in three short hours he had learned how to make all matter of dango and daifuku. And was currently dusted liberally, from head to toe, with flour and sugar.

_If only my parents could see me now. _

While Soujirou lifted the heaviest boxes in the world and lugged around gargantuan bags of flour Yuki serenely listened to her mp3 and flipped through a fashion magazine.

He had just finished a batch of green tea flavored manju when a shrill beeping caught his attention. He raised an eyebrow as she sighed, closed her magazine and removed her headphones.

"Nishikado-san. That's it, you're done." She said, a little regretful.

"Really?" he asked. "I don't owe you anything? You'll accept my apology now?" he asked, forgetting to hide the excitement from his voice.

"Yes." Yuki smiled sadly, now he would probably disappear from her life completely and travel to the far corners of the world and she would get to read about his exploits in her gossip rags. Soujirou smiled.

Yuki sighed and turned to pack her things. Hoping that Soujirou left before the tears in her eyes ran down her face.

Soujirou came behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. She made a gasping sound and tried to get away. But Soujirou held firm.

"Yuki-chan. I'm sorry I'm such an idiot. I don't deserve you." He murmured into her ear.

She was facing him now, with her head resting on his chest.

"Would you be generous enough to give me another chance?" He said tugging on the end of her ponytail, she hiccuped and clung to him desperately.

She lifted her head from his chest to look him in the eye, "Yes." She said hoarsely before returning to the comforting circle of his arms.

"Thank you." He said gratefully, holding her tightly. He tipped her head up by the chin to kiss her.

Yuki fed all the pent up emotion she'd fed in the past week into the kiss, Soujirou rested his hands on her hips and pressed her up against the counter. She made a mewling sound and broke it off for air.

"I told you so!" a voice said from the entrance.

Yuki and Soujirou turned to looked at the visitors

"It's only Thursday, pay up Rui." Domyouji said smugly, one arm around Tsukushi. Rui and Akira stood behind the two, and the former sighed and dug around for his wallet.

Akira looked sheepish, "Sorry, but they couldn't wait."

Soujirou exasperatedly rested his forehead against Yuki's, "Akira's nosiness only comes in handy once every ten years." He whispered tiredly. Yuki laughed, jumping down from the counter hand entwined with Soujirou's.

**OWARI**


End file.
